Good news! I’m very pleased to let you know that the governors successfully appointed a new Headteacher for St Mary’s before the half term holiday.

Please see below for a letter from our Chair of Governors, Len Clark.

“Dear Parents,

As you know Peter Hadfield will be taking early retirement at the end of the summer, having served as Headteacher of St. Mary’s for some 13 years, so that he and his wife Mandy can take time to do some of the things they want to do and visit some of the places on their wish-list. He has served the school brilliantly during the time that he has been here but I shall have more to say about that at another time.

The Governors have been searching for a replacement for Peter and I am happy to say that we have appointed Miss Emily Norman to become Headteacher from 1st January 2014. She has a good track record as a Headteacher, having been a very successful head of St. Matthew’s Church of England School in South Westminster for some years.

However you will have noticed that although Peter retires at the end of the summer Emily doesn’t start until the beginning of next year – this is because a serving Head has to give rather more notice to his/her employer than would otherwise be the case. So the Governors have had the problem of covering the period from 1st September to 31st December but happily they have found a solution. We approached Peter and he has very generously come to our rescue by agreeing to come out of retirement and return in September as Headteacher until the end of the calendar year – this was by far the best solution from the school’s point of view as it was felt that it would cause the least disruption. We are enormously grateful to Peter for agreeing to give us another 4 months, particularly when he was all set to cast his chalk aside – or should I say his Interactive White Board – and join the ranks of those of us who, allegedly, enjoy a rather more leisurely lifestyle.”

Yours sincerely

Len Clark

(Chair of Governors)

The staff are all looking forward to working with Emily after Christmas and it’s really good to have the uncertainty of the last few months settled. The governors have made a great decision for the school and I know Emily will receive a warm welcome and much support from our families. This is an amazing school and can only go from strength to strength.

The children, staff and parents of St Matthew’s are in my prayers as they begin the journey that we are now completing and I hope they will be in your prayers, too.